2015 so far.... 3 tags punched all ready

[lightmag]

Well its been a great 2015 so far :) , started out by finally getting a group LEH moose/bull draw after over 20 years of no moose draws. So with that in mind I decided to stay closer to town with my draw rather then head north for moose.

Season started with a bang, litterly .... 3rd day dropped kids off at school, decided to pick up deer tags, drove to bush, turned onto a road and .... this guy bounced out..... meat buck down, whitetail tag punched 20 minutes after buying it :)
MG]http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o298/dentonjohnson/th_whitetail2015_zps2x0zjfwy.jpg (http://s123.photobucket.com/user/dentonjohnson/media/whitetail2015_zps2x0zjfwy.jpg.html)[/IMG]

the next 2 weeks consisted of me and my brother pounding the bush for elk, tons of KM's on our feet straight thru bush, calling , hiking , trail cams.... saw lots of sign, tracks, rubs, etc...no elk, not a peep... but it was much of the same for the majority of our friends and local elk hunting up to that point.


http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o298/dentonjohnson/th_rubs2015_zps26eqjsbn.jpg (http://s123.photobucket.com/user/dentonjohnson/media/rubs2015_zps26eqjsbn.jpg.html) With the moose rut due to turn on and elk not co-operating , I switched to moose and trying to fill one of the bull draws. After only 3 days in my area, on foot and some quadding, and several moose sightings and interactions with them in close.. this was the first bull to show him self... came in dead quiet to calling , no monster (he's last years calf) , but good eats, 1 bull draw filled!!! this was after working a 12 hour nightshift...solo, 12 degrees out at 7am... had to cut short quad trail in, dragged him out and rest was history.
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o298/dentonjohnson/th_moose2015_zps8qkwevyh.jpg (http://s123.photobucket.com/user/dentonjohnson/media/moose2015_zps8qkwevyh.jpg.html)

[lightmag]

more coming .......

[lightmag]

here are my hunting partners and helpers in the meat shop :)

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o298/dentonjohnson/th_camokids2015_zpspzva5t6i.jpg (http://s123.photobucket.com/user/dentonjohnson/media/camokids2015_zpspzva5t6i.jpg.html)

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o298/dentonjohnson/th_alivia2015_zpshcxf7mha.jpg (http://s123.photobucket.com/user/dentonjohnson/media/alivia2015_zpshcxf7mha.jpg.html)

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o298/dentonjohnson/th_hanging2015_zpsxdsrh2lu.jpg (http://s123.photobucket.com/user/dentonjohnson/media/hanging2015_zpsxdsrh2lu.jpg.html)

[lightmag]

So back to elk..... tough year , the ones that had been taken all seemed to be less vocal, we checked many different areas and again, fresh sign, tracks, rubs, but calling produced nothing ..... With Elk season due to close at the end of the week, (today now) , my brother was frustrated and ready to give up on them. But when he was out Monday night ... he had an encounter with a cow elk and a bull that was clearly only 4 or 5 on one side (6pt here) and wasn't showing his other side... it looked like he had 3 brows on one side?? and when he finally turned and ran he also saw small split on top making him atleast 6...... but he was gone. He came home even more frustrated as he felt he had let a legal 6pt bull elk walk ..... I told him to stay positive and we would hit that spot the following night together.

fast forward 22 hours... I picke dhim up from work and we headed out to out spot . We quadded in, saw a cow moose on route .. took our time and finally got to and set up in the spot we wanted at 630ish we had approx. 60-70 minutes of legal shooting light left. Sprayed scent down and proceeded to cow call... calling and waiting , nothing , after 20 minutes we pushed into the timber where he had went the night before, following a game trail and chirping as we headed back into the timber.. still nothing ..with less then 25 minutes of light left, it was quite dark in the timber..so we made are way out and my brother did a couple of bugles to try and get an answer.... nothing ... we had been defeated again.... we made our way back to quad quietly and with 15 minutes left we started to quad out ... ......

[lightmag]

we had no sooner rounded the corner where we had just come out of the bush.... ELK, BULL, dam near ran into us..... he turns , we jump off, he bolts for timber....my brother cow chirps.... the bull stops and turns towards us at tree line at approx. 40 yards..... I clearly have him in my scope.... and think I can confirm 6 .. my brother recognized him from night before and knew exactly where and what he was looking for to confirm same legal bull from night before.. I whispered "take him" ..... and I heard a click...... at this point I almost shot.. figuring miss fire from my brothers gun... but I hesitated a second as I wanted my brother to shoot as I felt it was his elk to take.... then he fired!!! You could instantly tell the bull was hit hard.. he turned and crashed in the willows...... I looked at my brother .."what happened" his reply " my safety was still on" lol ........ we waited maybe 5 minutes.. it was almost dark and we wanted to utilize the light we had left to find him.... we slowly walked into the thick willows..... broke thru to the other side.... and there he was bedded 30 yards away he jumped up and bolted ... my brother was 30 feet up from me and only had an ass shot, but when he jumped up he turned and was slightly quatered away from my position so I shouldered rifle and hammered him thru lungs.. he went 20 feet and crashed down!!! ELK down!!! we walked up and now realized why it looked like he had 3 brows.. he did on one side.. only one was going back the opposite direction , so he was actually a 7x4 , my brother tagged him as he hit him hard first, we both had tags and after opening him up saw his shot took shoulder out and top of lungs, if we had waited another 5 to 10 minutes he would have never got up again .
Awesome experience with my brother!! our 2nd bull together , he was with me we I took mine a few years ago , this was his 2nd bull elk, he took a nice 7x5 4 years ago local as well, that's 3 bulls out of PG area for us in last 6 years , not too shabby

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o298/dentonjohnson/th_elk2015_zps3chpea8d.jpg (http://s123.photobucket.com/user/dentonjohnson/media/elk2015_zps3chpea8d.jpg.html)

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o298/dentonjohnson/th_broelk2015_zpsn00bdzgn.jpg (http://s123.photobucket.com/user/dentonjohnson/media/broelk2015_zpsn00bdzgn.jpg.html)

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o298/dentonjohnson/th_6pt2015_zpskszh0rq2.jpg (http://s123.photobucket.com/user/dentonjohnson/media/6pt2015_zpskszh0rq2.jpg.html)
so now off to Williams lake tomorrow with him to hunt deer :) hopefully more pics to come after weekend .

Good luck everyone, be safe.

[lightmag]

My son shot his first ever grouse this past week too!!! 2 for 4 on his first ever attempts !!! proud dad, he was pretty stoked too, thi swas after doing a 4km walk at day break with uncle and me :)

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o298/dentonjohnson/th_grouse2015_zpssidtjrih.jpg (http://s123.photobucket.com/user/dentonjohnson/media/grouse2015_zpssidtjrih.jpg.html)

[TheProvider]

Great season for you so far, good luck the rest of the season!

[landphil]

Congrats, that's an effective way to fill some freezers!

[Backwoods]

Congrats!! Good to see the kids out there with yah!!!

[Knute]

Great season so far!
Some good pics there, I especially like the one with the young gun and his grouse.
Good luck with the deer season.

[325]

Neat elk! Your freezer will be full this year

[Xbow]

Please don't let your freezers talk to my freezer!!!

My freezer is going to feel inadequate!!!!!!

Great work out there!!!!!

[HarryToolips]

Wow way to go, that's one hell of a start to the season...good job to your bro for not shooting when in doubt if it was legal...I hear of 5 pt elk being illegally shot every year..

[tenrag]

Wow, you have had great success this year! I hope I can tell a similar story by the end of my session. Congrats to the kids for their success also!!

[swampthing]

Great stuff. Looks like a good year. Great on the son getting his first game. Before you know it he will be beating you up the mountain.

[jaeger]

Congrats on a good season and super tasty meat!

[Sitkaspruce]

Seasons looking good Lightmag!!!

Good luck on the deer hunt!!

Thanks for posting!!

Cheers

SS

[kennyj]

Nice!! So far so good.
Thanks for sharing your season.
kenny

[BCbillies]

Wow! You're on a roll . . . given how the year is unfolding you may as well put the goat LEH to use and head west!

[Jerlynn]

With my wife expecting our first right now, I see pictures like yours and really hope that I can raise kids willing to help out on the hunting like that. Glad to see kids that know where meat comes from and can appreciate our wilderness!